MARSHALL, Minn. – Southwest Minnesota State battled the No. 19 ranked team in the country during its annual homecoming game, but the University of Minnesota Duluth put together a couple of key drives in the second half to pull away and earn a hard-fought 28-6 victory on Saturday afternoon at The Schwan Regional Event Center.
UMD, which has now won six straight in the series, improves to 4-2 overall, 4-1 NSIC, while SMSU dropped its fifth in a row and is now 1-5, 0-5 NSIC.
SMSU finished the game with 19 first downs and 312 yards offense, while UMD, which entered the game averaging 377 yards per game, closed with 296 yards and 12 first downs.
UMD's Derrick Johnson rushed for 59 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries. Austin Randall made the start at quarterback for the Bulldogs and completed 8 of 18 pass attempts.
SMSU quarterback
Tommy Hoffman, who replaced starter
Macloud Crowton late in the first half, finished the contest completing 13 of 20 passes for 138 yards and one touchdown, while also rushing for 38 yards.
Emmanuel Diers rushed for a game-high 61 yards on six carries for the Mustangs, while teammate
Josh Lancifort added 40 yards on 10 carries.
Tryg Auten caught a team-high four passes for 43 yards, while
David Ola-Kazeem and
Izaac Vanek each finished with three receptions. Ola-Kazeem caught a 12-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter for his first career touchdown.
Jack Meier led the SMSU defense with seven tackles, while
Aiden Planer added six stops with two for loss.
The SMSU defense made the first big play of the game with
Connor Shelton intercepting Randall in the endzone to end a Bulldog scoring attempt. However, on SMSU's ensuing drive, Crowton was intercepted with UMD taking over at the SMSU 6-yard line. The SMSU battled but Randall was able to sneak across on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line to put the Bulldogs up 7-0 at the 8:51 mark of the first quarter.'
Both teams struggled on offense over the next several possessions with UMD punting on three consecutive possessions, while SMSU turned the ball over on downs twice and punted twice.
UMD finally broke through taking advantage of a 14-yard SMSU punt midway through the second quarter to start its next scoring drive at the SMSU 39-yard line. The Bulldogs converted a pair of short third-down conversions on the ensuing drive, including a 1-yard touchdown by Johnson to build a 15-0 advantage with 4:43 remaining after converting a two-point conversion.
SMSU nearly scored on its final drive of the first half with Diers collecting runs of 26 and 14 yards to help set up the Mustangs with first down at the Bulldogs' 12-yard line. However, the UMD defense held strong and forced a
Landon Hubbard 25-yard field goal attempt that was blocked to keep the Bulldogs in the lead into halftime at 15-0.
UMD extended the lead to 18-0 midway through the third quarter following a 41-yard field goal by Drew Henson.
SMSU broke through on its next drive moving 75 yards on 10 yards with Hoffman completing the drive with a perfect 12-yard touchdown pass to Ola-Kazeem with 3:29 on the clock. SMSU was denied on its two-point attempt to trail 18-6.
The UMD special teams came through moments later as a 57-yard kickoff return set up the Bulldogs at the SMSU 30-yard line. The SMSU defense held strong and forced UMD to settle for a 31-yard field goal by Henson to make the score 21-6 after three quarters.
SMSU had a pair of solid drives in the fourth quarter but UMD turned SMSU over on downs at the UMD 33-and 7-yard line.
UMD added a final touchdown with 6:20 left in the game with Johnson breaking free on a 40-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1.
SMSU resumes NSIC South Division play next Saturday, Oct. 10, with a match-up at the University of Sioux Falls with kickoff slated for 1 p.m.
